Why Did People Spy on Future Ghosts on St. Mark’s Eve?

At the end of last year I came across an article that inspired me to add a new date to the Weird Holidays & Observances listings. The article was “15 Weird Forgotten Holidays We Should Totally Bring Back” on ViraLuck. The date was April 24, St. Mark’s Eve.

Which sounds pretty harmless and rather ordinary, doesn’t it? In and of itself, there’s nothing to suggest St. Mark’s Eve would be all that macabre or unusual. I would’ve skipped right over it on ViraLuck’s list if not for the “Spying on Future Ghosts” part.

Spying on Future Ghosts?

Did you read that and think the same thing I did? What in the world is spying on future ghosts all about?

Well, first of all, it’s not so much spying as foreseeing who will die in the coming twelve months.

Apparently this was a popular St. Mark’s Eve past time in England between the seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries.

How to See Future Ghosts

People would sit in a church porch –which, pause here for a moment.

Do you know what a church porch is? I had to look it up. It’s a room-like structure at a church’s main entrance. Thanks, Wikipedia.

Anyway, if you have a church like that, you sit silently in the porch between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

During this time you watch. Legend had it that the ghosts of those who would die during the coming year would be witnessed passing into the church.

To prepare for the watching, some people fasted. Some also walked around the church before going to sit in the church porch. Nothing like staying up late, being hungry and getting some exercise to make you more mentally susceptible to seeing ghosts, right?

Additional St. Mark’s Eve Folklore

Some believed the “ghosts” you spied first, meaning closest to 11 p.m., would be the ones to die first, while those seen nearer to the one o’clock hour would die later in the year.

And I’m not sure if it’s just in Yorkshire where this next legend might happen, or if it’s where the legend sprung to life, but the folklore from there states that if you turn around seven times in a garden on St. Mark’s Eve, a man will appear behind you.

It doesn’t say if there’s a certain time of the day or night on St. Mark’s Eve that you should do this, and a man? What man? Why would you want to make a random man appear behind you? What’s he supposed to do? I’m still trying to figure that out. If you know, please fill in this piece of the puzzle and tell me.

Spying Future Husbands

Unless conjuring a man had to do with another superstition where it was rumored that a young woman could see the face of her future husband by “holding her smock in front of a fire” on St. Mark’s Eve.

So if you’re single and have a smock laying around and you want to see the man you’ll be marrying, now you know how to get a preview of your Mr.’s face.

Who’s Giving Up the Ghost?

Would you want to have a sneak peek at who’s going to die in the year ahead? That seems like a weird thing to want to know, doesn’t it? Or is it just me?

I get the wanting to see your future husband. That makes sense, but I’m not sure I’d want to know who was going to die.

But I’ve also gotta be honest. Part of me wants to try, just to see what happens. Both sitting in a church porch and turning around in a garden seven times to see if a man shows up. I’ve got a lot of questions for that guy.

Check-In

What about you? Would you want a preview of deaths to come?

Or, for any of you single ladies, would you want to see your future husband, or wait and be surprised when he finally comes along and puts a ring on it?

What about making friends with some strange man you can summon just by turning around seven times? Assuming he’s friendly. I’m not sure why you’d want to summon an unfriendly man, but I’m sure there are some who’d dig that too. To each his or her own.

Or maybe you’re already familiar with the spooky strange St. Mark’s Eve traditions? Perhaps you’ve even tried them?

Super curious to hear your thoughts about all of this.